Ambient Sibiu, a local do-it-yourself (DIY) retailer and distributor of building materials, has filed for insolvency. The company submitted an insolvency request at the Sibiu court asking for its approval to start a reorganization process.

“The evolution of the construction sector and the retail with building materials in the past years has shown that the domestic market remains a difficult one,” reads a company press release, cited by local Capital.

“Only the firms that managed to adopt measures for strengthening and streamlining the business have succeeded to overcome the difficulties of this period.”

Ambient hasn’t managed to attract the necessary funds to finance the working capital, during the financial restructuring process in the last four years, according to company representatives.

Ambient has 12 stores in Romania, most of them located in Transylvania, and over 1,200 employees. Its sales went down by more than 20% last year, to EUR 112 million. The company thus recorded EUR 7.3 million losses.

Romanian businessman Ioan Ciolan controls over 70% of Ambient’s shares. Last year, he gave 10% of the company to a fund controlled by lender BCR to pay off some of the company’s debt.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: ambient.ro)